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IBM: The Rise and Fall and Reinvention of a Global Icon
A history of one of the most influential American companies of the last century. For decades, IBM shaped the way the world did business. IBM products were in every large organization, and IBM corporate culture established a management style that was imitated by companies around the globe. It was "Big Blue," an icon. And yet over the years, IBM has gone through both failure and success, surviving flatlining revenue and forced reinvention. The company almost went out of business in the early 1990s, then came back strong with new business strategies and an emphasis on artificial intelligence. In this authoritative, monumental history, James Cortada tells the story of one of the most influential American companies of the last century.
Cortada, a historian who worked at IBM for many years, describes IBM's technology breakthroughs, including the development of the punch card (used for automatic tabulation in the 1890 census), the calculation and printing of the first Social Security checks in the 1930s, the introduction of the PC to a mass audience in the 1980s, and the company's shift in focus from hardware to software. He discusses IBM's business culture and its orientation toward employees and customers; its global expansion; regulatory and legal issues, including antitrust litigation; and the track records of its CEOs. The secret to IBM's unequalled longevity in the information technology market, Cortada shows, is its capacity to adapt to changing circumstances and technologies.
Cortada, a historian who worked at IBM for many years, describes IBM's technology breakthroughs, including the development of the punch card (used for automatic tabulation in the 1890 census), the calculation and printing of the first Social Security checks in the 1930s, the introduction of the PC to a mass audience in the 1980s, and the company's shift in focus from hardware to software. He discusses IBM's business culture and its orientation toward employees and customers; its global expansion; regulatory and legal issues, including antitrust litigation; and the track records of its CEOs. The secret to IBM's unequalled longevity in the information technology market, Cortada shows, is its capacity to adapt to changing circumstances and technologies.
752 pages, Hardcover
Published March 5, 2019
About the author
James W. Cortada
73 books6 followersJames W. Cortada is the author of over two-dozen books on the history and use of information and computing in American society. He is a Senior Research Fellow at the Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota. He worked at IBM for thirty-eight years in sales, consulting, managerial, and research positions.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 25, 2021
Did I learn a lot? Yes. Could a 200-page book about IBM have taught me thrice as much? Absolutely.
It is impossible to read solid 617 pages about a topic and not learn a not, but this book gets as close as you can to that. It is SO, SO poorly written that you wouldn’t believe it. It is neither technical-focused nor business-focused. It’s also not a good mix of both, it’s an awful one. It gets highly technical on random topics (without giving proper information) and gets highly business-focused (also without giving proper background information). This book is just bad.
I’ll write a “”summary”” of what I learned later, but I confess that I’m already dreading going through these pages and re-reading the most highlighted parts. So if I never get to write the summary, keep in mind that that’s the reason.
It is impossible to read solid 617 pages about a topic and not learn a not, but this book gets as close as you can to that. It is SO, SO poorly written that you wouldn’t believe it. It is neither technical-focused nor business-focused. It’s also not a good mix of both, it’s an awful one. It gets highly technical on random topics (without giving proper information) and gets highly business-focused (also without giving proper background information). This book is just bad.
I’ll write a “”summary”” of what I learned later, but I confess that I’m already dreading going through these pages and re-reading the most highlighted parts. So if I never get to write the summary, keep in mind that that’s the reason.
February 20, 2020
There is some IBM history. And a lot of junk to pump up the thickness of the volume.
> In the United States, divorces increased, people lost their homes, the great Dust Bowl disrupted the lives of over 2 million families, young men hit the road, but most aggravating was the sense that the Depression would never end.
And the 2 millions of hungry farmers could not buy IBM products anymore and that meant IBM could close down? Actually, it was the other way around, the US was becoming an empire, just like the European countries, and the White House, just like Hitler's government, were very interested to count how many people can turn into cannon fodder.
And surely, Depression would never end, that's why the government was overtaxing the public, because the promise was to keep the Depression going.
Overall, it's just a blend of press clippings from someone who does not get business. IBM was not falling in the early 1990. In the early 1990s it became obvious for Journalism majors. The falling has started in the late 1970s by having the same rigid and superstitious management as in the 1940s.
> In the United States, divorces increased, people lost their homes, the great Dust Bowl disrupted the lives of over 2 million families, young men hit the road, but most aggravating was the sense that the Depression would never end.
And the 2 millions of hungry farmers could not buy IBM products anymore and that meant IBM could close down? Actually, it was the other way around, the US was becoming an empire, just like the European countries, and the White House, just like Hitler's government, were very interested to count how many people can turn into cannon fodder.
And surely, Depression would never end, that's why the government was overtaxing the public, because the promise was to keep the Depression going.
Overall, it's just a blend of press clippings from someone who does not get business. IBM was not falling in the early 1990. In the early 1990s it became obvious for Journalism majors. The falling has started in the late 1970s by having the same rigid and superstitious management as in the 1940s.
February 3, 2022
This is a masterful and comprehensive history of IBM from its beginnings in technology and businesses from the end of the 19th century formed into a conglomerate in 1910 to developments in 2018. The focus is on the business practices and culture of the corporation, but some technical information about computer history is broached and some influences from and on wider culture and history is discussed.
James Cortada is an accomplished historian of computing and a retired IBM employee he brings all this accumulated expertise to bear in this mammoth history. Cortada also situates the discussions of the history of IBM its successes and failures in terms of business theories of corporate management and culture. Cortada also deploys lots of archival sources and material from other histories and journalistic accounts.
A notable novelty of this book is focusing on often neglected details. For example Cortada takes some time to examine the component corporations were conglomerated into Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company in 1910. Often the only one of these to get more than a cursory mention is Herman Hollerith's Tabulating Machine Corporation that developed the punched card accounting machine that was the core of IBM's business until after the World War II. Cortada discusses the Computing Scale Company and International Time Recording Company and their contributions to later developments at IBM. He also discusses the career of the father of trusts Charles Flint who was responsible for the conglomeration.
The lack of technical detail about the machines IBM produced can make it hard to get enough context to follow some developments. On the other hand the narrative is already so dense with detail it is understandable that details are often limited. The only major omission I noted was the lack of a proper list of worked cited at the end, therefore to find the sources for this text you must search the chapter endnotes. There is a short bibliographic essay at the end of the book that discusses some sources.
I actually read this book as an ebook. However I sense the edition I purchased is no longer sold. It worked fine.
James Cortada is an accomplished historian of computing and a retired IBM employee he brings all this accumulated expertise to bear in this mammoth history. Cortada also situates the discussions of the history of IBM its successes and failures in terms of business theories of corporate management and culture. Cortada also deploys lots of archival sources and material from other histories and journalistic accounts.
A notable novelty of this book is focusing on often neglected details. For example Cortada takes some time to examine the component corporations were conglomerated into Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company in 1910. Often the only one of these to get more than a cursory mention is Herman Hollerith's Tabulating Machine Corporation that developed the punched card accounting machine that was the core of IBM's business until after the World War II. Cortada discusses the Computing Scale Company and International Time Recording Company and their contributions to later developments at IBM. He also discusses the career of the father of trusts Charles Flint who was responsible for the conglomeration.
The lack of technical detail about the machines IBM produced can make it hard to get enough context to follow some developments. On the other hand the narrative is already so dense with detail it is understandable that details are often limited. The only major omission I noted was the lack of a proper list of worked cited at the end, therefore to find the sources for this text you must search the chapter endnotes. There is a short bibliographic essay at the end of the book that discusses some sources.
I actually read this book as an ebook. However I sense the edition I purchased is no longer sold. It worked fine.
October 10, 2019
История IBM от одного из ее сотрудников.
Интересно проследить за историей IT начиная с конца 19в, затрагивая и клоны System\360 в СССР.
Автор пишет достаточно интересно, но из 600+ страниц минимум 100 можно было бы удалить без потери информативности. Автор пытается показать, что он историк, проводя в начале каждой главы описание методологии и библиографии на тему этой главы, причем зачастую повторяет одно и тоже из одной главы в другую
Интересно проследить за историей IT начиная с конца 19в, затрагивая и клоны System\360 в СССР.
Автор пишет достаточно интересно, но из 600+ страниц минимум 100 можно было бы удалить без потери информативности. Автор пытается показать, что он историк, проводя в начале каждой главы описание методологии и библиографии на тему этой главы, причем зачастую повторяет одно и тоже из одной главы в другую
April 10, 2023
Slow, plodding and relentlessly academic history of the legendary corporation. Phrases of the "in-this-chapter-I-will-demonstrate" sort litter the entire book. There's a great deal of interesting information here but the author's hopelessly inelegant writing style makes it a chore to excavate. Not recommended.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews